Purpose

This paper aims to explore trade policy measures taken in response to COVID-19 and analyses in detail their extent and nature. It assesses their compatibility with World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements: specifically, whether they were necessary and justifiable efforts to protect the security and health of populations and asks how this widespread recourse to trade barriers may impact on international business?

Design/methodology/approach

This paper analyses an extensive database from the International Trade Centre of trade measures taken in response to COVID-19. It differentiates by type of country, nature and coverage of measures (imports or exports, type of product…). On the basis of existing jurisprudence, this paper analyses whether restrictive measures were likely to be judged legal under WTO rules.

Findings

This paper finds that, although the majority of trade measures are probably justifiable, there were nevertheless many measures whose coverage and/or nature was such that a justification under existing WTO exceptions is, at the very least, arguable. Such widespread and intense instigation of potentially WTO incompatible measures in such a short period of time undoubtedly undermines the global trade rules on which international business has relied for decades.

Originality/value

There is little existing analysis of the legality of measures taken under the security exceptions and no substantial analyses of the measures taken in response to COVID-19. Furthermore, little scholarly attention has been paid to the impacts on international business of the increasing use of WTO “exceptions” to justify trade measures to protect national industries and populations.

中文翻译：

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贸易政策对COVID-19的回应及其对国际业务的影响

目的

本文旨在探讨针对COVID-19采取的贸易政策措施，并详细分析其范围和性质。它评估了它们与世界贸易组织（WTO）协议的兼容性：具体而言，它们是否是保护人民的安全与健康的必要和合理的努力，并询问这种广泛使用贸易壁垒的方式会对国际商业产生何种影响？

设计/方法/方法

本文分析了国际贸易中心针对COVID-19采取的贸易措施的广泛数据库。它根据国家类型，性质和措施范围（进口或出口，产品类型……）进行区分。根据现有的判例，本文分析了在WTO规则下限制措施是否可能被判定为合法。

发现

本文发现，尽管大多数贸易措施可能是合理的，但仍有许多措施的适用范围和/或性质使得至少在现有WTO例外情况下的合理性是有争议的。在如此短的时间内如此广泛和激烈地煽动可能与世贸组织不相容的措施，无疑破坏了国际贸易几十年来一直依赖的全球贸易规则。

创意/价值

现有的关于在安全例外情况下采取措施的合法性的分析很少，也没有对针对COVID-19采取的措施进行实质性分析。此外，很少使用学术上的关注来关注日益增加的使用WTO“例外”来证明贸易措施以保护本国工业和人口对国际业务的影响。